Himachal health department looking into monkeypox patient’s travel history

The New Delhi resident, who tested positive for monkepox, has a travel history to Himachal and had visited Manali in June

The state health department is working to trace the travel history of the 34-year-old man from New Delhi who tested positive for monkeypox and was later isolated at Lok Nayak Hospital in the national capital.

Himachal health department looking into the monkeypox patient’s travel history who recently visited Manali. (PTI (Representative image))

The Paschim Vihar resident, who is being given symptomatic treatment in New Delhi, has a travel history to Himachal and had visited Manali in June.

National Rural Health Mission director Hem Rakj Bairwa said, “We are tracing the places he visited and are trying to gather information about immediate contacts. The 21-day incubation period is over and so far no patients with monkeypox-like symptoms have come up.

The health department directed all chief medical officers to adopt remedial and preventive measures to deal with the monkeypox virus in the state, with a spokesperson Anjali Chauhan saying, “Even if a person has come in contact with a person suspected or infected with monkeypox in the last 21 days should seek immediate medical attention in case of high fever or skin rash, headache, muscle aches or fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes.”

Giving further information, Chauhan said the infection spreads through direct and indirect physical contact, through body fluids, particles from coughing and sneezing, sexual contact or contact with wounds, or touching contaminated clothing or objects used by the affected person, adding that if infected, the person should be isolated and the nearest health institution be contacted at the earliest.